


The Hacksaw of Puberty

by thepinupchemist



Series: Hideaway 'Verse [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Awkwardness, Family, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, Omega Verse, Parent Castiel, Parent Dean, Parent Dean Winchester, Parenthood, Puberty, Teenagers, Timestamp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 07:22:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1378837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepinupchemist/pseuds/thepinupchemist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dads Dean and Castiel experience the joys of their children going through the most awkward parts of puberty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. She's Got Balls

When Mary Winchester-Novak wakes up on Saturday afternoon, she feels strange. She pushes herself up into a sitting position and glances at her alarm clock – just past one in the afternoon. She doesn’t usually sleep in this late. But she feels kind of funky, kind of antsy, a dull, persistent throb thrumming between her legs and making her spine tingle. She sniffs, and hell, something smells weird.

Mary lifts her arm and gives herself a smell test, and whoa, it’s _her. She_ smells weird.

Could she…is this presenting? She isn’t slick or anything. But her health teacher and her dad both say that presenting feels different for everybody. And her dad would know, because he’s a doctor. Even if he wasn’t a doctor, Mary’s pretty sure that her dad knows everything. Maybe she should ask him?

And it’s not like this is something that she could talk to her omega dad about. It’s _way_ too embarrassing to ask her daddy about her body doing weird stuff. Not ‘cause he wouldn’t know. He’s smart too, but about people-things and friends, and cars and saws and stuff. But also sometimes he treats her like she’s a puppy when she’s already thirteen, thank you very much.

Alpha dad never treats her like a pup.

Quietly, Mary slips out of bed, hugging around her chest. She’s wearing one of alpha daddy’s old band t-shirts, one that omega dad said that they couldn’t throw out because it reminds him too much of when her dads met, so it’s special.

So Mary wears alpha dad’s _The Clash_ t-shirt for pajamas.

She’s pretty sure that she’ll find her dad upstairs in his study, where he usually is on weekend afternoons, “doing the family finances” or “attending to business”, both of which she suspects really mean reading and/or falling asleep in the god-awful armchair up there, another relic that omega dad refuses to let go of, even though he says he thinks that it’s ugly too.

When Mary opens her bedroom door, she can hear her brothers either wrestling around on the living room floor, or fighting. She can never really tell which one is which, since one usually leads to the other anyway. She’s glad they’re occupied, ‘cause she doesn’t want them to make fun of her for smelling funky.

She jogs up the stairs to the study and pauses a moment before she knocks.

“Mary, you don’t have to knock.”

Mary rolls her eyes. Omega daddy says they should knock on the study door even if alpha dad thinks that they don’t have to. She turns the knob and slips inside, quickly closing the door behind her and locking it, just for good measure. The last thing that she needs is for Ben or Jack to run in here and make everything awkward.

“Dad, I feel really weird,” she says, “and I smell funny, but I’m not slick or anything so I don’t know if this is presenting or if I just have some weird disease but I figured you might know because you’re a doctor and you know all about these things and –”

“Mary,” her father says.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” he says, a half-smile tipping up one side of his face. He clicks out of whatever he’s working on on the computer and stands as he says, “You don’t have a weird disease. The reason you’re not feeling slick is because you’re an alpha.”

“I’m…an alpha?” she says.

“Yes, and you’re an alpha in your first rut, as it happens,” he says.

Mary turns pink and opens her mouth to speak, but alpha daddy keeps talking, “Your father and I knew this was right around the bend so we made sure to prepare. Follow me.”

Mary turns even redder, because that means her dads were talking about her rut or whatever this is before it even happened. She ducks her head down and sticks close behind alpha dad, and then snatches his hand because this is embarrassing and she’s scared. She’s all hot under her skin and kind of sweaty and _shit_ , it’s getting worse, isn’t it?

Alpha dad squeezes her hand and whisks her into the master bedroom, where Mary is relieved to see that her other daddy is not present inside.

“I’ll need you to let go of my hand for a minute so that I can get you some supplies,” he says gently.

Mary jerks her hand away with a muttered, “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry,” he says, and he opens the closet door, reaching up to the top shelf. He shuffles around for a second and then brings down two boxes, which he passes to her.

Oh, come on. She turns ever-redder when she sees what her dad just handed her. There’s a pink penis-like implement slashed across the first box and big bold, words _HEAT HELPER_ on all sides of it. She looks up at her dad and says, “I’m not in heat, though.”

“You might want to try that one for your first rut,” he suggests, “It can be tricky being a female alpha. You have more than one way to relieve your rut the same way that a male omega does, but at first a fake channel might not do the trick. You have a while yet before all your alpha anatomy is fully developed.”

“ _Dad_ ,” Mary mutters.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed,” he says, “this happens to everybody.”

“Not betas,” she replies.

“Not betas,” alpha dad agrees, “but it does happen to every alpha. Now go on. You probably feel awful and this is the only thing that’s going to help. When the first wave of your rut tides over, come out to kitchen and we’ll have some food ready for you. You have to remember to hydrate and eat.”

“Okay,” she says. Mary licks her lips and adds, “…Thanks, daddy.”

“You’re welcome. Now go. And lock your door. We don’t want your brothers barging in on your first rut. Although that would make an interesting story.”

“Gross, dad.”

“Go, Mary,” alpha dad says.

“Right,” she replies, and go she does.

**X**

Castiel finds Dean elbows-deep in his work, goggles on and saw humming as he cuts down lumber for the legs of a dining room table that a pair of newlyweds ordered – Dean still complains that he’s not sure about the website setup that Charlie made for him, but it certainly has roped in more business for him.

It takes Dean several seconds to notice Castiel hovering in the frame of the workshop door. When he does, he shuts off the saw and pushes his goggles up onto his head. It never fails to impress Castiel how handsome his mate is, though Dean likes to gripe about the subtle gray climbing up in his hair and the longer lines that crease his face when he laughs.

“Hey,” he says, “You smell kind of iffy. Did you clog up the kitchen sink with your tea shit again?”

Castiel rolls his eyes and replies, “No, I have been throwing my tea leaves in the trash as instructed, you slavedriver,” he grins and shakes his head before he says, “Mary just presented.”

A look of surprise smacks Dean in the face. Castiel knows that though they discussed that Mary’s presentation would happen soon, and that Dean insisted upon being prepared so that none of his children ever had to suffer the way that he did through his first miserable heat, that Dean has trouble recognizing that the pups won’t be puppies forever. They’ll grow up and move out and have lives of their own.

Dean says that he doesn’t want to think about that when they are only thirteen, ten and eight years old.

“Is she – she okay?” asks Dean.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Castiel says, “I gave her both of the toys. She’s an alpha.”

The surprise on Dean’s face melts into a mixture of new emotions, among them relief – Dean worries about the world failing to treat his children right, should they present as omegas. Although Dean teaches all the children self-defense techniques, Castiel knows it will reassure him to know that Mary will start to develop alpha strength and will have little to worry about. The possibility of assault does not vanish when one presents as alpha, but it diminishes significantly.

And though Dean has overcome much in their years together, residual fears will likely forever nestle in the back of his brain.

“I think she’s mostly embarrassed,” Castiel says, “It can’t be easy to talk to your parents about being in a rut. Although, she seemed surprised not to be an omega.”

“Huh.”

“Yes,” Castiel says, and glances down at his wristwatch, “She’ll probably be out in twenty or thirty minutes. I should make her something to eat. She’ll wear herself out if she doesn’t get enough calories.”

Dean rolls his shoulders and pulls the goggles off of his head. He says, “I’ll come with. Unless you think she’d be wigged out?”

“She’s thirteen,” Castiel reasons, “Everything is embarrassing to her.”

“Freaking bags of pheromones,” Dean grumbles as he stands, “Why does anyone ever have to be a teenager? It’s awful. For everyone involved.”

Castiel winds an arm around Dean’s shoulders and brings him in for a kiss. Dean sighs into it and then rests his head onto Cas’ shoulder for a long moment. When they finally close the workshop door and trek up the stone path laid out by Dean to the front of the house, it’s chaos.

“Daddy, Ben pushed me!”

“He started it. He took my Batman,” defends Ben.

Castiel tries not to roll his eyes at his sons. He says, “Jack, you know that Batman is your brother’s favorite. What do you do when you want to play with Batman?”

Jack casts his eyes down at the floor and pouts, looking remarkably like Dean being denied a second helping of dessert. He says, “I’m s’posed to ask.”

“And did you ask your brother if you could play with Batman?”

“No.”

“And you, Benjamin Samuel,” Dean says, “On what planet is it okay to push your brother?”

“The Batman planet,” Ben says, indignant.

“Right. Well, unfortunately for you, this is not the Batman planet,” Dean replies, “We are on planet Earth. Now I suggest that we hear some apologies or there are gonna be some boys getting their butts tucked into bed early.”

“But it’s movie night!” Ben exclaims.

“So it is,” Castiel agrees.

The boys go silent and glower at each other. It never fails to strike Castiel that his ten-year-old looks almost exactly like him, minus the color of his eyes. Benjamin squints over at his brother with the same deep frown Castiel sees in the mirror when he’s been woken up too early, his arms crossed over his chest. Jack takes after his omega father – but he looks no less intimidating.

Finally, it’s Ben that relents, his shoulders sagging. He sighs, “I’m sorry that I pushed you.”

Jack maintains his frown for another second before it fades, perhaps at the thought of missing out on family movie night. He mutters, “Sorry I took Batman.”

After the apologies, Benjamin and Jack are fast friends again, though God only knows when another fight will break out. Sometimes Castiel can’t even decipher whether they’re fighting or playing, the way they roughhouse. At least when Dean jumps into the mix to wrestle or pillow fight or whatever it is that they do, he knows that it _probably_ won’t end in tears.

In the kitchen, Dean grabs a beer out of the fridge and collapses into a slouch at their kitchen table, while Castiel removes two slices of bread from the breadbox to start crafting Mary a sandwich. He puts all her favorites on it – roast beef, honey mustard, a couple of pickle slices, but _no tomatoes, dad._

Mary emerges nearly a half-hour later, red in the face. Castiel gives Ben a pointed look when he wrinkles his nose at Mary’s scent and opens his mouth to comment. He closes that same mouth when Castiel gives him a slow shake of the head.

Fortunately for everybody, the sound of AC/DC’s _She’s Got Balls_ blasting from the speakers in the living room distracts them all. Dean grins at Mary and gives her wink.

“That’s not funny, dad!” she says.

Dean responds with an air guitar and a dance that sends the boys into a fit of giggles. Castiel tries not to laugh for Mary’s sake and ducks his head to hide his smile – he wonders how long Dean had that trick up his sleeve. Mary, however, scowls and crosses from the kitchen to the living room to pick up a couch cushion and throw it at Dean’s head before she steps back up to eat. Dean takes the blow in stride and cranks up the volume.

When Castiel passes Mary her sandwich and a glass of juice she gives him a tentative smile and says, “Thank you, daddy,” in such a way that Castiel gets the feeling that she is thanking him for more than a sandwich.

He smiles and pulls her in for a one-armed hug, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Mary makes a noise of protest and wriggles out of his grip with a second noise, a growl of annoyance. A tiny little alpha growl. She takes a step toward the kitchen table but pauses, and turns back around.

“Hey, dad?” she says softly.

“Mm.”

“How long do these things go on?” she asks, voice hushed.

“It varies alpha to alpha,” Castiel replies, “Mine tend to last four days. Generally ruts are somewhere in between three and seven days.”

“Seven whole days?” she echoes, wide-eyed, and then her brows hitch, “But what if it’s not over by Monday? Do I still go to school?”

“We’ll call in for you,” he replies, “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”

Mary mutters an ‘okay’ with a snippy tone, but sits down to eat her sandwich. She wolfs it down bite after impressive bite, and washes each part down with a swallow of apple juice. Ruts can really work up a young alpha’s appetite – in more ways than one. Castiel remembers when he was just a teenager, how in between the ruts he would raid his fridge and prepare himself enormous, layered sandwiches that he’d dig into with gusto.

Only just after Mary finishes her food, he can smell another wave of the rut.

“Go,” he says, and touches her shoulder, “I’ll take care of your dishes.”

Mary nods and scrambles off, just as Jack whines, “Hey, how come Mary doesn’t have to wash up?”

For the rest of the day, Mary only emerges once more, wrapped in her Wonder Woman robe with her hair tied up in a scrunchie on top of her head. Castiel sends her off to bed with more water and a couple of pieces of fruit to keep her running until she finally settles in for sleep, which is a task when one is in their rut. She winds her arms around his middle and mumbles another thank you into his t-shirt.

Several hours later, when the sun goes down and Dean starts setting up the furniture and unloads spare blankets from the linen closet to start building their customary fort in front of the television, Jack asks quietly, “Isn’t Mary gonna come out for the movie?”

Castiel ducks down to Jack’s level and says, “Your big sister’s in her first rut. Do you know what that means?”

Jack tilts his head and guesses, “Mary’s an alpha?”

“Correct,” Castiel replies, “and when alphas are in their ruts, they start to smell funny and feel funny and can’t quite do things the way that they’re used to. Mary will be better in a few days.”

“But she doesn’t get to watch the movie,” Jack says, “I want Mary to watch the movie.”

“I know,” Castiel says, “but you wouldn’t want Mary to feel yucky on movie night, would you?”

“No,” Jack says, but he still looks disappointed.

On that note, Castiel helps Jack settle into the structure of blankets and pillows and living room furniture – Dean brings the boys cups of cocoa and a bowl of butter-soaked popcorn, while Castiel relaxes, content with only his tea.

Ben frowns, an expression that echoes Castiel’s in an eerily familiar way, and asks, “Where’s Mary? Doesn’t she wanna watch the movie?”

Before Castiel can explain all over again, Jack jumps in to say, “Mary’s an alpha and she’s having her first rut and even though we want her to watch movies with us, she can’t because she’s feeling funny.”

“What Jack said,” Dean confirms, “All right, buddy, what are we watching?”

“Goonies!” Jack grins.

“You always choose _The Goonies_ ,” complains Ben.

“Benjamin,” Castiel warns, “It’s Jack’s turn to pick the movie. If he wants to watch _The Goonies_ , then that’s what we’ll watch.”

Ben gives them a long-suffering look but doesn’t make another peep. He just cradles his cocoa against his chest while Dean flips through their Amazon Instant on the television and selects _The Goonies_. Just as the opening scene fills the television screen, Dean circles the blanket fort and tucks himself up against Cas’ side, nosing at his neck before he brushes his lips against the skin there.

“Gross, _dads_ ,” Jack says, “You’re s’posed to watch the movie!”

Dean chuckles into Castiel’s neck before he pulls back and says, “Sorry, buddy.”

Castiel thumbs along the rim of his mug of tea and turns to press his lips in a gentle kiss Dean’s forehead. The smells of his sons and popcorn and _mate_ and _home_ surround him, but his mind still drifts. He’ll check in on Mary after the movie ends.

It is never easy to be a teenager.

**X**

The rut doesn’t tide over until Tuesday night. Mary celebrates with the longest shower of her life, scrubbing her hair with flowery, scent-neutral shampoo and the fruity body wash that she always has to stock up on when they drive down into the city. Sometimes she thinks that she would like living in a city better than out in the mountains, where everyone knows each other and the high school she’s gonna go to has only two hundred kids.

But then she thinks about how in the city she wouldn't get to pick wildflowers in the spring and summer and put them in little places all around the house so that it looks pretty. Omega daddy probably wouldn’t have room for his workshop if they lived in a city, and that’s his favorite place to be. It wouldn’t be quiet enough for alpha dad to read and drink his tea on Sundays, and that’s what “helps him prepare for the week” or so he says.

Mary shuts off the shower only when her legs start to get stiff. She towels herself dry and dresses in a fresh set of pajamas. Now that she’s clean, her bedroom smells _rank_. She wrinkles her nose and yanks up her bedding, balling it into her arms so that she can carry it down to the basement and throw it into the washer.

There, she finds her brothers in a heated Mario Kart battle with omega dad, whooping and yelling at each other. She wishes that the rut went away sooner, so that she could have played too. But when they smell her – or maybe her sheets – the game gets put aside.

Jack pops his head over the back of the downstairs couch and asks, “Are you all better now?”

Mary half-smiles and says, “I think so. I’m gonna…wash these.”

As she tucks the bedding into the washing machine, Jack and Benjamin start up a new round, but omega dad comes to lean against the dryer. He asks, “How’re you feelin’, sweetheart?”

“Weird,” she says honestly, and turns pink, “this is so embarrassing.”

“Eh, you’re fine,” he says, and ruffles her hair.

Mary laughs and whacks him away with an irritated, “Dad,” and pauses to think. She asks, a little more quietly now, “Was it embarrassing for you? The whole…presenting thing?”

She doesn’t like the look that crosses omega daddy’s face. He glances down at the carpet and folds his arms over his chest, blowing all the air out of his lungs before he answers, “That’s a pretty loaded question.”

“Are heats worse?” she asks. She can feel her face heat up even more, but she wants to know the answer, and she knows that her dad wouldn’t lie to her about it.

“That’s hard to say,” he answers, “but it was pretty bad, that first time. You know, your grandpa John raised me up thinkin’ the whole time that I’d be an alpha like Uncle Sam, so it didn’t even cross my mind that I might not be. When I got that first heat, I didn’t know what it was. I thought I was sick. Granddad stuck me back in my bedroom and it was pretty bad. I won’t lie to you. It felt so strange I thought I was dying. Sometime later he throws a ten-buck drugstore toy at my face and that was that.”

“He didn’t have anything ready?” she asks. That just seems…weird. Why wouldn’t you be ready for anything? That's what dads are supposed to do. It's what her dads do, anyway.

“Well, he didn’t think I was gonna be an omega,” her dad rubs at his jaw, a distant sort of look on his face, “and it sucked. I didn’t want you to have to go through anything like that. Not you, and not your brothers either.”

“That’s stupid,” she says.

“Yeah, it was pretty stupid,” he agrees, and then asks, “So, havin’ your first rut was kind of embarrassing, but ‘sides that, are you all right?”

Mary squints at omega dad. He gets weird like this sometimes, asking her if she’s okay even when _duh_ , she’s fine. She’d tell him if she wasn’t okay. He should know that, and most of the time he does. But every once in a while her dad does this – looks at her like he’s afraid she might disappear into thin air or break into a million pieces.

A snarky response sits poised on the tip of her tongue, but something tells Mary to bite it back. Instead of giving a sarcastic reply, she leans forward and wraps her arms around her dad’s middle, pressing her face into his chest. He returns the hug and runs his hands over her back.

When Mary pulls away she gives him a sock to the arm and says, “I’m fine, dad,” then she grins, “and I’ll be even better after I whoop your butt at Mario Kart.”

“You wish,” omega dad says, and they race to the couch together.


	2. Ain't Nothing But Mammals

Benjamin enjoys sitting with his omega dad in his workshop, helping with his dad’s commissions when he’s allowed to. Sometimes he just watches his dad work or maybe brings a book or some games to play while he’s there, because mostly he just likes being there, among the smells of sawdust and lumber and tree sap. Dad mostly doesn’t seem to mind. It’s hard to talk over the buzz of dad’s tools, though, so they tend to just hang out without talking, unless dad is staining wood or applying lacquer or something equally quiet that Ben’s allowed to do, too.

Today, omega dad is finishing up applying a final coat of lacquer a blond-colored bookcase for Aunt Jo and Aunt Charlie’s newly remodeled upstairs. They have a minifridge and an air hockey table and darts and all kinds of things that are awesome to mess around with up there, too. Their aunts don’t really babysit Ben, or Mary or Jack, anymore because all the kids are too old for babysitters now, but the new upstairs makes Ben wish a little that they could go over to their aunts’ on their dads’ date nights like they used to.

“How’s school?” asks omega dad.

Ben shrugs, “Boring.”

Omega dad laughs softly and agrees, “Yeah, I didn’t like high school much either. Better than junior high, though, right?”

“I guess so,” Benjamin says. He’s fourteen now, and after almost two months of high school he still isn’t sure what he makes of it. Most of the kids in his high school have presented already, and it makes a lot of classes tenser, fraught with hormones and pheromones and posturing and all kinds of things that are super, super annoying.

Maybe it might make sense when he presents. That’s what Mary says, but Benjamin doesn’t know how far he trusts his older sister as an authority.

Though he is tired of being called a _late bloomer._ (“I didn’t present ‘til I was almost fifteen,” omega dad tells him, but alpha dad presented when he was twelve.)

“Hey, you’ll figure it out,” omega dad says, “I eventually did, so I’m sure anybody can do it.”

Before Ben can answer, the workshop door swings open and Mary sticks her head in, sandy blond hair knotted up into a bun on top of her head. She says, “Daddy wants to know what you want for dinner.”

Omega dad blows all of the air out of his lungs and says, “Something with meat n’ potatoes, I guess. But don’t let him make meatloaf again. Tired a’ that crap.”

“All right,” Mary says, “What about you, Ben?”

Benjamin shrugs, “What dad said. I’m okay with anything.”

“Cool,” Mary says, and disappears, the workshop door closing neatly behind her.

Ben stays in the workshop with omega dad and watches him go through the motions until Jack comes out and tells them that alpha dad wants them inside so that they can wash up before dinner and get the scents of sawdust and wood stain out of their clothes and skin. Omega dad hangs up his tools and loops his arms around Ben and Jack’s shoulders before they walk up the path into the house. He ruffles Jack’s hair and Jack whines, shoving back against omega dad and sending both their father and Benjamin stumbling to the side.

The house envelops them in the warm scents of _home_ and _family_ , but also the tang of something meaty and juicy cooking in the oven and steamy potatoes already on the kitchen table, soaked with butter and seasoned with rosemary. Ben rolls his eyes when omega dad makes a beeline for alpha dad and hugs him from behind, nosing all grossly into his neck.

“Gross,” Jack says, before Benjamin can express the same sentiment.

“Eh, whatever,” omega dad says, “You’ll get it when you’re older.”

Actually, Ben kind of hopes that omega dad is right about that. It’s still really nasty to watch his dads get all cuddly and weird with each other, but he knows that’s one of the signs of healthy mates that one another. True mates, like in books and movies. That’s what his dads are.

Ben scrubs his hands at the kitchen sink before he helps Mary set the table, grabbing the silverware while she takes down the plates and positions them at their usual spots. When alpha dad takes the main course – steaks – out of the oven, the entire kitchen smells heavenly. Ben’s mouth waters, and he can see from across the room that omega dad’s got the same thing on his mind.

Supper, as always, is loud and messy and awesome, because everything that alpha dad makes tastes amazing. He has dish duty tonight, which he hates, but it seems kind of okay, even if the steam from the faucet while he rinses mashed potatoes and the remains of peas and steak from the plates makes him hot under his collar and his forehead gleam with sweat.

By the time that Ben finishes, the rest of his family is already parked in the living room in front of the television, watching some reality TV show.

Well, sort of.

Mary has her homework in her lap and alpha dad is reading a book, but they’re all together, so Ben doesn’t want to be left out. He swaps his jeans and t-shirt for some comfy pajamas and brings one of the big knitted blankets that alpha dad made from his bed to wrap around his shoulders. He parks himself between Mary and omega dad, warm and happy in the scent of _family_ , belly full of good food and nose full of good smells.

Alpha dad falls asleep with his book open in his hands like he always does, and after the show ends, omega dad wakes him up to drag him off to bed. Mary says she’ll stay awake, but Benjamin feels kind of too tired to bum around.

It’s oddly hot for a night in November – he has to crack open his window to let in a stream of cool air into his bedroom before he retreats to brush his teeth and cycle through his bedtime routine. The breeze that rolls through his window when he returns to snuggle back into bed is a relief. It smells like mud from the slushy, melting snow outside, and pine and earth and all good things.

It’s a pleasant thing to fall asleep to.

…Except, when Benjamin wakes up, he’s so hot that he feels like he’s going to burst out of his skin.

He’s also sitting in a giant, fragrant puddle of slick.

Awesome. Just what he needed at – he glances at his phone – three in the morning on a Wednesday. To present. He’s gonna miss the intro of their new project in shop class tomorrow, and damn it, he was really looking forward to that.

Ben sits up and tries to adjust his erection into a less obvious position before he pads across his bedroom and into the hall. He ducks into his dads’ room, where both of them are sprawled out on their bed, fast asleep.

Omega dad is snoring.

Buuut omega dad is probably the one he’ll want to wake up, since Benjamin is now also an omega.

Ben jabs at omega dad’s shoulder, and he startles awake.

“Wuh – huh? Ben?”

“Dad,” he says, “I’m in heat. I need a toy or something. Help.”

Omega dad blinks a couple of times before he sits up and scents the air.

“Jesus,” he mutters, “Yeah, you’re in heat all right. Let’s get you set up.” He swings his legs over the edge of his mattress and flicks the lamp at his bedside table on. Yellow light fills the master bedroom and casts long shadows from the furniture onto the carpet. It’s dim, but enough light that omega dad can stumble safely to the closet and slide open the door.

“Can you hurry up?” Ben whispers, “My pants are sticking to my legs.”

“Hey,” omega dad says, and sends a glare over his shoulder, “You watch the tone with me, buddy.”

“Sorry.” Ben scowls at the floor.

A few moments later, omega dad takes some boxes down from the top shelf of the closet and holds them out. He says, “We gotta couple a’ options for you. There’s this ‘Heat Helper’ thing,” – he passes Ben a box with a monster of a fake knot underneath the window of plastic wrapping in the front – “and then there’s an ‘Omega Magic Wand,” – this one is slimmer, but lists that it vibrates under the features splashed across the side of the box – “aaaand ‘Alpha Simulator 3000.’” The last one is long and intimidating but also kind of enticing at the moment.

“Could I – uh. Take all of them?” Ben asks. He doesn’t really know what he likes, so he doesn’t really know what to choose.

“Yeah, go for it,” omega dad says, “You know what to do with those?”

Ben rolls his eyes and says, “ _Duh_ , dad. I’m not stupid.”

“All right, all right,” his dad says back, “You’re getting testy. Time to go help yourself. Between heats you need to eat and drink lots of water, you hear me? And lock your door.”

“I _know_ ,” Ben says. He doesn’t leave any time for omega dad to respond to that before he gathers the toys to his chest and dashes across the hall. He is so ready to fix this feeling. Like, now.

**X**

Cas stirs when Dean clambers back into bed, nose full of the scent of his poor kid’s puberty-fest, and sits up, squinting. He sniffs a little and says, “What in heaven’s name _is_ that?”

“Your son,” Dean says, “Ben’s in heat.”

He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t worried. Benjamin will have to know all kinds of things now, things that Dean won’t ever have to teach Mary. And damn it, Ben has a few things that Dean never did – sure, even at fourteen he’s broad-shouldered and remarkably tall for an omega, but he’s also smaller than Dean was at the same age and has bright blue eyes and long dark lashes. It’s the kind of shit alphas go gaga over, and the kind of shit that Ben will have to spend his life defending.

“Ah,” Cas says, that note of understanding in his voice making Dean feel a little ridiculous for being so goddamned worried.

“It’s dumb that I’m freakin’ out, isn’t it?” Dean deadpans.

“I don’t know about that,” Cas replies, and wiggles up taller so that he can loop his arm around Dean’s shoulder and bring him in for a solid a hug. He noses over Dean’s skin and hair and kisses the top of his head before he says, “I think you have good reasons to worry. But I also think that your experiences make you more attuned to the issues that omegas face.”

Dean groans into Cas’ shirt.

“Benjamin isn’t helpless,” Castiel goes on, “He knows how to shoot and he certainly knows how to hurt somebody that’s hurting him, at least for long enough to run. And on top of that, his uncle is infamous in omega rights. Ben isn’t stupid. He knows what omegas are up against.”

Dean groans again, and twists out of Cas’ embrace. He pushes himself out of bed and rakes his fingers through his (ever-graying, goddamnit) hair. He can’t help but reel back into old, dusty memories of the omega compound. It’s seventeen years behind him, but he still feels everything as though he was just there. And then he thinks of his baby boy, his kid, having to suffer all of the same shit, and he feels sick.

“Dean,” Castiel says softly, and breaks him from his train of thought, “Do you need me to bring a glass of water?”

The strained look on Cas’ face makes it obvious that Dean is stinking up a storm of distress. He tries breathing in and out all slow and it helps a little, at least enough to calm him into sitting back down on the mattress. As soon as he does, Cas grips him by the waist and pulls out some alpha-strength: he hauls Dean back to him and snakes their limbs together. Kisses rain down on Dean’s face, and with them the distress starts to ebb away. Cas’ scent is so right, lighting him right on up from the inside.

“Thanks, little alpha,” Dean says into Castiel’s neck.

“You’re welcome,” he says back, pecking his lips to Dean’s unshaven cheek.

After a little more soothing – Cas rubbing his palm in circles over Dean’s back and giving him gentle kisses – Dean feels at ease enough to let his eyes drift closed and his body sink deeper into the mattress.

Maybe the hardest part of this all is knowing that this is just another notch on the _my kids are growing up_ belt.

There have been a lot of notches there, lately.

**X**

The heat is pretty short, as far as they go – according to the internet, anyway. Ben knows it’s tiding over when the bouts break further and further apart and the power of his need dims to a low thrum, draining away until it isn’t even there at all.

The first thing that he does when it passes is shower, and shit if that isn’t the nicest shower that he’s ever had. He’s tired of being all smelly, though he’s even more tired of being cooped up in his bedroom with nothing but a bunch of fake knots to entertain him. He tried to concentrate on reading something or even just messing around on the internet, but man, heat narrows you down to being pretty dang single-minded.

It’s late afternoon when he finally toes out of the bathroom, hair damp and body redressed in fresh clothes. Mary and Jack are home from school if the backpacks on the living room floor are anything to go by, though neither his brother nor sister are anywhere in sight. It’s actually eerily quiet.

The first person he can scent out is omega dad, the smell lurking in the master bedroom. He pushes open the door, and sure enough, his dad’s curled up on top of the blanket, in some kind of battle with a game on his phone. Omega dad stops when he smells Ben and sets his phone aside.

“Hey, kiddo,” he says, “How’s it going?”

“Good, I think,” Ben says, and kicks the bedroom door shut before he climbs onto the mattress beside omega dad, flopping his head back against the pillow. He says, “I think I liked the vibrating one best.”

“Whoa, TMI, buddy,” his dad says, and gives Ben a light sock to his shoulder.

“Sorry,” Ben replies with a careless little shrug.

“Eh, you’re fine,” dad says, “I’d rather be all open about crap than make you feel like you can’t talk to me when you need it. And dang, that was fast. You get short heats. Lucky you.”

Benjamin snorts and fiddles with a loose thread on the hem of his t-shirt. Something about his omega dad smells off, not quite right. It actually…smells kind of like _worry_. Ben frowns over at dad and asks, “How come you smell worried?”

Omega dad rubs his hand over his face and lets out a long breath. He doesn’t speak for a long time, just kind of stares at the ceiling like he doesn’t quite know how to put to words what’s on his mind. He exhales again before he says, “You…uh. You know that I’ve been through some pretty terrible crap. Right?”

Ben does know. Sort of. He knows bits and pieces of omega dad’s life before he and alpha dad met. He knows that omega dad was running away when alpha dad found him, and he also knows that his dad was already pregnant with Mary by then. He knows that Mary knows the whole story and that she wouldn’t tell him when he asked, and that she said that it was omega dad’s story to tell.

And he knows that the story made Mary cry.

“Kind of,” he finally answers.

“All right,” omega dad says, “I’m not gonna go into detail right now – you’re old enough to know the whole kit and caboodle, but that’s a chat for another time. Point is, I’ve seen some shit that I never would have seen if I didn’t present as an omega. And I’m worried ‘cause I don’t ever want you to go through what I did.”

The seriousness in his dad’s voice makes Ben uncomfortable. Seriousness is typically reserved for his alpha dad, while omega dad is all about goofing off and building pillow forts and bickering over Mario Kart with. He wants to tell his dad that he’ll be fine, but it’s kind of hard to reassure somebody when you’re not even certain what you’re supposed to be reassuring them about.

Carefully, Ben says, “I can hold my own.”

“Yeah, I know,” dad says, “But I’m your dad, so it’s kind of my job to worry.”

“You’re more worried than most people would be.”

“I know that too,” omega dad sighs, “Look, you’re a smart kid – you, damn. You’re a great kid. And I think the fact that you’re growing up so fast kind of scares the fuck outta me, you know? I just hope you know that I know you’re not weak and I know you’re not dumb, and I’m not gonna make some new stupid rules for you that Mary doesn’t have because she’s an alpha and you’re an omega. Ah, shit.”

Benjamin’s frown deepens. His dad’s eyes are kind of wet, and whoa, omega dad almost never cries, except for when they watch _Lilo & Stitch_.

“Dad?” Ben says, and he pulls omega dad’s hands away from his face. His eyes are red-rimmed and glassy, and it makes Benjamin’s heart feel like a great big stone underneath his ribcage. His voice cracks when he asks, “Are you okay?”

His dad blinks back the moisture in his eyes and says, “Yeah, I’m okay. You know your granddad John was pretty cruddy to me when I presented and I just – don’t want fuck up the way that he did. I’m so damn proud of you, and I’d be proud of you no matter what.”

“Jeez, dad,” mutters Benjamin, but he feels like he should probably say something else. He adds, “I think you’re doing a good job being a dad.”

Omega dad cracks a smile at that and says, “C’mere, you,” before he yanks Ben into a bone-crushing hug so enthusiastic that they end up flailing a little and toppling over the edge of the mattress and onto the carpet. A sharp bark of laughter erupts from dad’s lungs and so Ben laughs too, right before he shoves omega dad back and sits directly on top of him.

“Oh, see, now you’re asking for it,” omega dad says.

Ben grins, “Only if you can catch me, old man,” right before he jumps up and bounds out of the room to grab a couch cushion for protection, omega dad hot on his trail.

And even when a couch cushion gets launched into Ben’s head and he crash lands over the coffee table in a heap, he thinks that there’s no family that he’d rather have than the one he’s already in.

…Even when he loses wrestling matches to omega dad.


	3. Alien

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for mentions of gender dysphoria

“ _DAAAAAAAAADDD_!”

It’s the panic in Jack’s voice that sends Dean tripping over the coffee table and away from his TV binge. That’s not the “DAD!” of a sibling pestering him, or a “DAD” indicating that he wants something. That “DAD” is nothing short of terrified. Cas stumbles to Jack’s bedroom door at the same moment that Dean does, and they exchange a look of concern before Dean busts in action-hero style.

Jack sits cross-legged on his bed, face pale. He also _reeks_.

“Holy crap,” Dean says, nose wrinkling before he can help it.

“What’s wrong?” asks Castiel, ever the practical one of their parental duo.

“There’s something wrong,” Jack says.

“I gathered that,” replies Cas.

“Wrong with what?” Dean asks.

“My _junk_ ,” Jack whispers frantically, and pushes his blanket off of his lap.

One thing that Dean is pretty sure that he never needed to see is his son’s first knot. Also, of all the kids to pick up Dean’s preference for sleeping commando, it had to be the puppy of the family, didn’t it? Dean exclaims, “Dude!” and turns away.

Behind him, he hears Cas say, “That’s just your first knot, Jack. It’s nothing to worry about. All alphas get them. It’ll go down in a bit and we can have toys for by then, okay?” Practical, reasonable bastard. Dean can’t get over the fact that the last of his babies has presented. Sure, okay, Jack is only twelve, but it’s the first sign that his kids are closer and closer to leaving the nest. It won’t feel right without them.

“Dean?”

Dean turns his head at the deep timbre of Castiel’s voice.

“Are you okay?” he asks him.

Dean blows all the air out of his lungs and murmurs, “Why do they have to grow up, Cas? I wish our pups could stay little forever.”

Cas shakes his head, an affectionate smile glinting on his lips when he leans over to kiss Dean’s forehead, nosing at the skin. He says, “And when they were little pups, you couldn’t wait for them to grow up. They’ll never stop being ours, even after they leave. And we have plenty of time before then.” Except Mary. Mary’s due to go to college in a year. _College_.

Before Dean’s anxiety can rev up to full force, they hear a sniffle behind them. Both Dean and Cas turn. Jack has tears leaking out of his eyes, though he has his fists pressed to his face, smearing them away between ragged breaths.

Dean frowns, “What’s wrong, kiddo?”

“I wanted to be an omega like you and Ben,” Jack whimpers.

Dean looks over at Cas. Cas looks pensive.

“Hey, hey,” Dean says. He pulls Jack’s blanket back up over his lap before he sits down next to his son, wrapping an arm around Jack’s broad shoulders. Kid is the spitting image of Dean at twelve, minus the business happening downstairs. He rubs a palm over Jack’s back and says, “It’s gonna be all right, bud.”

“Do you feel like an omega on the inside?” asks Castiel, expression still thoughtful.

Jack bites his lip.

“I…um. I don’t know,” he answers, and then repeats, “I don’t know.”

“Perhaps you are genderfluid,” Cas says.

Dean makes a face, “He’s what now?”

“Genderfluid,” Castiel repeats, “It means that while physically Jack is an alpha, mentally he may jump from presentation to presentation. Some individuals experience this from birth, while others experience the phenomenon after they present. So, Jack, if you begin to feel – dysphoric, or like you’re not right in your own skin…you can tell us. Omega dad and I just want you to be happy.”

Jack sniffles, but under that, there’s a smile. He snuggles a little closer into Dean, scenting along the sleeve of his t-shirt. Dean dips down and presses his nose in Jack’s crop of messy, honey-gold hair. He definitely has that sloppy, testosterone-saturated scent of an alpha to him now, but under the frantic explosion of new smell, there’s the same old scent of Dean’s kid. The distress mixed into all that unsettles him. He can’t help it. Omega daddy instinct has him hopped up from zero to _you fuck with my kid and I will destroy you_ , except that there isn’t anyone to destroy in this scenario.

Jack clings, and Dean clings back. They stay that way until Jack whispers that he thinks that the knot is gone and that he’d like to put on some pants now.

“Go for it, kid,” Dean says, giving Jack a playful sock to the shoulder, “Alpha dad and I’ll whip up some grub for you and then we can grab a toy, all right? I can smell your rut on the horizon.”

Jack seems unenthusiastic at the idea of a rut, but cheered by the prospect of something good to eat, and kicks his dads out of his bedroom to change into seeing-people-appropriate attire. When Dean opens the refrigerator, Ben makes a startled noise from over the homework spread out in front of him at the kitchen table and asks, “Why do you smell weird?”

“Because your brother’s in a rut,” Dean says, “or he’s about to be, anyway.”

An expression crossing someplace between being grossed-out and interested appears on Ben’s face. He remarks only, “Huh,” and then, “How come he’s got it so early and I only just presented?”

Ben is only around a month and a half into being an omega. Dean watches like a hawk for any of Ben’s friends or teachers treating him differently, but so far hasn’t seen any sign of it. He worried – a lot of Ben’s friends are alphas with the same capacity for doing work with their hands, like Dean does, kinesthetic work with woods and metals. But Ben’s alpha friends haven’t seemed to change a lick, and they roughhouse and dick around like they’ve always done.

Maybe Dean shouldn’t be so pleased that his kid’s ability in physicality and participating in stupid shit hasn’t been hindered, but hey – a few bumps and scrapes is fine, as long as Ben doesn’t feel left out.

There’s some relief knowing that he won’t worry as much over Jack, although as a dad it’s kind of his duty to worry about his kids regardless of presentation or circumstances.  

Dean hums and replies, “’Cause, everyone’s different. Plus your pheromones mighta triggered his pheromones, and now the whole house is one damn pile of friggin’ pheromones.”

Ben rolls his eyes at Dean and responds, “Jeez, so- _rry_.”

Dean cocks a brow at the attitude in Ben’s tone, but he doesn’t look even remotely apologetic. Being that the kid is fourteen, that’s hardly surprising. Before Dean can launch in on a lecture about respect, Jack comes bouncing into the kitchen from the hallway clad in pajama bottoms patterned in some Disney princess or another. The dude got _so excited_ about seeing these things during one of their trips to town that it was impossible to tell him that he couldn’t have them, even if it did exceed the bounds of his monthly allowance.

“Can we heat up some of last night’s supper?” Jack asks, nudging Dean away from the fridge to rummage through it on his own. Cas appears at the mouth of the hallway, arms folded over his chest. He leans against the corner with an amused quirk to his mouth, one that makes Dean shake his head and chuckle.

Jack seems square on handling his own food, though the first stages of his rut stink up the kitchen enough that Ben folds away all his homework and makes a move to his bedroom to finish it. Jack doesn’t seem to care, or even notice. Sometimes the kid’s sunniness is one of his greatest qualities, if a little tiring.

Dean pulls back to Cas’ side and says, “He seems all right now.”

Castiel looks at their son, assessing him with a serious gaze. Unlike Ben, in Jack there is hardly a sign that Castiel helped create him aside from the tiny glimmers – his eyes are blue and not green, and instead of Dean’s sturdy, thick-fingered hands, he has the tapered, elegant hands of his alpha father – but Cas never had that deep-rooted alpha need to know that their pups are theirs in every way, that they smell and act and look like their alpha, and that it’s their alpha’s blood beating from their hearts.

Dean is grateful for that.

“I think that as long as he knows that we are here regardless of circumstances, he’ll be fine,” Castiel says, “I don’t come across many transgender individuals this far into the mountains, but I knew several when I lived in Denver.”

“Hmm,” Dean replies. A heaviness behind his ribcage reminds him that if Jack had had John for a father instead of Castiel and Dean that he would be miserable and confined and never allowed to be true to himself. There’s relief in knowing that Jack is his and that he’ll never, ever treat his little boy the same way that his father treated him.

“You’re overthinking it,” Cas rumbles, coiling an arm around Dean’s middle and burrowing his nose into Dean’s hair. He swears it’s getting grayer by the day, but if he ever complains about it, Cas just holds him close and tells Dean that he loves his gray hairs and the fine lines at the corners of his eyes. And even if Dean thinks Cas is full of shit, he knows that Cas believes what he’s saying is true, and that counts for something.

The microwave dings, bringing both Cas and Dean from their trances. Dean sighs, “We should go grab a toy.”

They end up settling on a couple of alpha toys, but throw in an omega toy just in case – though Jack won’t produce slick on his own, so they have to leave some synthetic stuff in the bundle on the bed. When Jack finishes eating and returns to his bedroom, beads of sweat roll down his forehead and he’s panting. His scent is worse, saturated in alpha and sweat and raw, unfamiliar need.

Dean lets Cas handle the talk this time around, mostly because he doesn’t know enough about handling alpha stuff, and that he doesn’t know anything at all about ‘genderfluid’ alpha stuff. He’ll have to get Cas to fill him in on that crap when their children aren’t nearby, and are preferably asleep.

When Cas emerges from Jack’s bedroom and lets the door click closed, they hear the lock roll into place and take that as their cue to leave.

It’s official. All of Dean’s pups are growing up. He could ignore the growth spurts and cracking voices, but he can’t ignore his kids evolving from playful, carefree little things into older creatures with adult issues and adult needs.

He sighs.

Who knew what Dean would ever be the type to look forward to a future of grandpups?

**X**

The stupid rut thingie lasts for _ever._ At first it was kind of fun for Jack because hey, he’s never really tried out any of this stuff. But then he just got tired and sluggish, and by the time he’s clearheaded enough to realize that the thing has worn off forever, he stinks so bad he practically barrel rolls into the shower. It lasted seven entire days, and Jack would be happy not to have another week like that for a long, long time.

Freshly bathed and wrapped up in a new set of jammies and a blanket-cape, Jack ventures out and peers around at the entrance to the hallway. It’s late – or early, he supposes. The microwave clock in the kitchen says that it’s already past two in the morning. The house is quiet, except for a steady stream of snoring from the couch. Jack toes over the carpet and finds alpha dad sprawled there, still outfitted in all his doctor stuff. He probably sat down on the couch to rest and just passed out there. He does that sometimes if the hospital asks for his help and he doesn't get home 'til super late.

Jack pulls himself up onto the couch and jostles alpha dad awake. His eyes are barely open when the snoring stops and he turns his head. He sleepily asks, “Jack?”

“Yup,” Jack says, “My rut is gone. I didn’t like it much.”

“We could get suppressants for you.”

“I thought you had to be older to get those,” Jack says, confused.

“If you’re an omega,” alpha dad says, “Biologically, I mean.”

Jack wrinkles his nose and says, “Well that’s stupid.”

“It is very stupid, yes,” agrees alpha dad, “Do you feel okay?”

“Yeah,” says Jack, “I’m happy.”

“Why is that?” asks alpha dad.

“’Cause you and omega daddy are the awesomest dads ever and I love you best,” Jack says, “more than Mary and Ben love you. _Combined._ ”

Alpha dad lets out a soft laugh and pulls Jack in for a hug. The scent of his dad nearby is nice, and even if he is more grown up now, Jack figures it doesn’t hurt anybody if he curls closer into that smell and basks in the sensation of being warm and safe and loved.

He has the best family ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some notes on being transgender, genderfluid, or genderqueer in this 'verse: Because people in the 'verse are dual-gendered, there are two places that an individual could experience dysphoria -- from birth, clashing with biological male/female, or at puberty, clashing with presenting biologically as alpha/beta/omega. Jack here is genderfluid in the second sense in the 'verse and he does still identify as male, though the experience could also occur in both areas! 
> 
> HOPEFULLY THAT MAKES SENSE. 
> 
> Anyway, that concludes this timestamp! Another one is around the bend.


End file.
